Hence, although the upper echelons present really wanted to retrieve it, they were not willing to pay too high a price. They felt it was not very worth it.
Bang! A top military officer slammed the table and interrupted the discussion. He clenched his teeth and said, “Damn it, we’re so restricted in someone else’s territory. We could’ve toyed with Black Star all we wanted if this happened in our territory.”
Everyone felt powerless.
It was what it was. Black Star had way too few weaknesses, and they were out of ideas.
About ten days later, inside the main ship office of the Black Star fleet, Han Xiao received the summarized data from Phillip and scanned it through.
“Is all the information here?”
“Yes, hum… This is all the information we’ve collected about the Soul Swapper.”
In the past ten days, the Black Star Army had started a large-scale search around the clues acquired from Aesop.
Firstly, they captured the tracking team that had their souls swapped and got some new information about the transport team from back then.
Originally, according to the plan, these spies would be swapped away again after the mission was complete, making it look like an accidental death, not leaving any clues behind.
However, the Soul Swap Twins’ escape caused them to be trapped inside the bodies of the Black Star Army soldiers. They did not dare contact Modo’s men because Black Star was monitoring the quantum network, nor did they know about the Soul Swap Twins escaping. They thought that they had to continue hiding and were caught red handed.
After acquiring information from these people, Han Xiao once again used the power of Destiny’s Child, and with some luck, they captured quite a few Modo Civilization battleships that had yet to leave the Shattered Star Ring. From these people, he found out that the Soul Swap Twins had escaped.
However, the leads stopped there. Modo’s men had no idea where the Soul Swap Twins were.
Han Xiao looked at the information collected, slightly shook his head, and sighed.
“The Soul Swap Twins can keep changing bodies. It won’t be easy to find them.”
He was not an expert in the soul area, but he did know someone who was—the leader of the Holy Accord organization, Oathkeeper, the current master of the Soul Flame.
This guy might have a way to find the Soul Swap Twins quickly. After all, no matter how many times they changed bodies, their souls would remain the same.
However, when Han Xiao tried contacting Oathkeeper, he was told that Oathkeeper had entered the Sanctum and had yet to return, so this method was out of the question.
“The current methods are only virtual technology, Bold Explorer, and luck, which are not very efficient…” Han Xiao pondered. “The Mechanic Emperor should be looking for the Soul Swapper, too. I can keep a close eye on him.”
When searching for Modo’s troops, Han Xiao had found out that some other spaceships of the transport fleet were also missing.
However, these spaceships were not in his hands. With some investigation, he discovered that it was related to the Mechanic Emperor’s subsidiary organizations, which basically proved that the Mechanic Emperor was looking for the Soul Swapper. Since he framed the Mechanic Emperor more than half a month ago, the three Universal Civilizations had already taken action. A part of the subsidiary organizations under the Mechanic Emperor that were disguised as legal organizations were temporarily seized.
Not only did this cause quite a loss for the Mechanic Emperor, more importantly, it meant that a lot of the Mechanic Emperor’s subsidiary troops were frozen, so the manpower he could use right now was tremendously reduced. This indirectly made it harder for the Mechanic Emperor to find the Soul Swapper.
However, Han Xiao felt that the Mechanic Emperor should have known about the Soul Swapper before he did. Furthermore, the Mechanic Emperor’s home was in the Primeval Star River, just like Modo, so he might know something he did not. Han Xiao felt that keeping a close eye on him might give him some surprises.
“Continue the search,” Han Xiao said.
“Report any and all situations to me. Keep an extra close eye on the Mechanic Emperor’s subsidiary organizations. Don’t let any one of them leave our sights.”
At the edge of the Shattered Star Ring, Planet Earth Ring was a transit station planet located near the inter-star field stargate that had a huge amount of traffic every day. A ton of galactic flights resupplied all kinds of resources. The management of the planet was a Star Cluster civilization of the Shattered Star Ring, so this was a government-controlled public transit hub.
The streets were crowded, prosperous, and filled with countless different races.
Half a month had passed since the search for the Soul Swap Twins began. A man and a woman walked on the street, carefully observing the surrounding while conversing softly. It was the Soul Swap Twins, Jill and Warren.
“Elder bro, anything from your sub-personality these few days?”
“I just suppressed it three days ago, but my souls are running out. We’ll have to top up on some souls today.”
“Me too. This planet has a lot of people, so it’s a suitable target. This is our last stop before leaving the Shattered Star Ring. We have to absorb as many souls as possible so it can last longer,” Warren said softly.
“Don’t do anything now. Wait till we’re about to leave.” Jill kept his voice down.
Their goal was to leave the Shattered Star Ring. Through changing their bodies continuously, they had finally arrived at the edge of the Shattered Star Ring. They planned to resupply there and then escape the Star Field through the stargate.
In order to suppress their mind traps, they absorbed quite a lot of souls on the planets they passed by, continuously ‘charging up’. Most of which were beasts, but that was not because they suddenly became kind and merciful; absorbing too many intelligent lives would attract attention, which was not beneficial for staying hidden.
Now that they were at the edge of the Star Field, they knew they would be mostly safe if they got out. Hence, they planned to go for a big one and absorb a lot of souls, hoping to find a way to completely defuse the mind traps.
This way, they would not have to commit any crimes in the other Star Fields and could hide themselves perfectly.
“We’re finally going to leave the Shattered Star Ring. We’ll soon have real freedom.” Warren’s tone was thrilled and filled with infinite hope for the future.
“This is the first step of our conquest!”
Jill clenched his fists. His eyes were gleaming with excitement. We’re finally about to take the first step of fulfilling their ambitions. Our imprisoned days have finally come to an end. As long as we have enough time to grow, given how magical the Soul Swapper is and how talented we are, we’ll certainly become a big deal in the universe!
While the two of them were dreaming about their future, a sudden change occurred, and the alarm suddenly rang throughout the city!
Woo!
The piercing alarm echoed throughout all the streets. Countless people looked up with surprise, not knowing what was going on. “What’s going on?”
“This is a planetary alarm. Has someone come to attack the planet!”
The people on the streets started panicking, including the street the Soul Swap Twins were on. “Elder bro, are they here for us?” Warren looked anxious.
“Don’t panic! No one should be able to find us, and even if someone did, they wouldn’t create such a huge commotion for it.” Jill was unsure too.
At this time, someone pointed at the sky and yelled, “Look, a fleet!” The people looked up. Battleships penetrated the atmosphere and hovered in midair, and mechanical soldiers shrouded the sky. There were no organization symbols, so they did not know what organization this was. This time, the sound of spaceships taking off continuously sounded. The garrison of Planet Earth Ring hastily arrived and loudly questioned what was happening in the public communication channel �
��This is the Planet Earth Ring Garrison Fleet Command Center. You have broken the Dock Parking Law by penetrating the planet’s atmosphere without authorization. Please identify yourselves immediately!” After a full two seconds, the voice of an old man finally sounded in the public communication channel.
“I’m Mechanic Emperor Manison. I’ll be taking over this planet temporarily.”
As he said that, countless people shockingly realized that their communicators had lost network connection. They were no longer able to send any messages out. The people were in an uproar. At this point, they clearly knew that the Mechanic Emperor had cut off the communication of the entire Planet Earth Ring with the outside world. He had locked down the quantum network of the planet! “Mechanic Emperor? What is he doing here?” Jill widened his eyes in shock. The two of them had escaped early, and Modo had partnered with the Mechanic Emperor after that. They thought that they were just innocent passersby at this point. They were just one step away from their beautiful future, and now they got into an accident right before that. They were both shocked and enraged.
However, no matter how arrogant Jill was, in the face of the great Mechanic Emperor, he knew there was no way he could mess with him. The only thing he could do was pray for the Mechanic Emperor to quickly finish what he came for and open up the lockdown so that they could leave.
At the same time, within the main ship above Planet Earth Ring, Manison’s Lord’s Avatar covered in electric sparks stood before the porthole, looked at the hostile and tensed garrison fleet, and calmly said, “Lock the entire planet down. Don’t allow any life form to leave. The target is right here. Filter the life forms of the entire planet till we find them!”
Outside the window, countless mechanical soldiers descended onto the ground and controlled the panicking crowd. Countless screams of pain shot up the sky and faintly reached Manison’s ears.
He scanned through the surface. He was completely certain the Soul Swap Twins were on Planet Earth Ring.
His tracking process was not the smoothest. This was not his territory, so he could not keep such a high profile like the Black Star Army could. He secretly seized a few transport ships only to discover that the Soul Swap Twins had already escaped, and his leads ended there too.
However, Manison acquired extra information from his mole in Modo and knew about the mind trap. He then searched for any place where a large number of life forms had turned into vegetables and lost their souls, and he speculated that it was the doing of the Soul Swap Twins.
Through finding similar incidents, he confirmed the escape route of the Soul Swap Twins and finally locked onto the Soul Swap Twins’ whereabouts today.
Due to the fact that his subsidiary organizations were already exposed and were being uprooted, Manison was no longer worried about getting found out, so he locked down the entire Planet Earth Ring. If not because most of his subsidiary organizations were suddenly frozen by the three Universal Civilizations, which led to him almost losing the lead mid-way and delaying him by a few days, he felt that he would have reached this point long ago. However, despite the obstacles and challenges, he still succeeded!
Manison shook his head.
Although the mind trap isn’t a highly confidential secret, none of these basic level crews know about it, so of course, Black Star doesn’t either. Hence, he can only roam around, relying on luck, which is also why he got lured away by me so easily some time ago… Tsk, it’s too early for you to fight me, Black Star.
A few days ago, he had deliberately made one of his subsidiary organizations lock down a planet very far away, acting as if he had found the whereabouts of the Soul Swapper to attract Black Star’s attention.
This successfully lured away a large batch of the Black Star Army’s fleet. From the way he looked at it, even if Black Star had already noticed this, he would not be able to reach Planet Earth Ring any time soon. However, to be safe, Manison still locked down the quantum network of Planet Earth Ring and delayed the time of the Black Star Army receiving any information.
He planned to get away as soon as he got what he came for. Afterward, even if the advanced civilizations held him responsible for it, there was no way he would throw up what he had already swallowed.
Chapter 1165 - Encounter and Confrontation
In the command center of Planet Earth Ring, the manager of the planet was startled by the Mechanic Emperor’s name and only spoke cautiously after more than ten seconds of silence.
“Your Excellency Mechanic Emperor, Planet Earth Ring belongs to the Razo Civilization. You have broken the Planetary Management Law set by the Shattered Star Ring Civilization Alliance by locking down this planet. We hope you can give us a proper explanation.”
“I’m chasing fugitives. When I’m done, I’ll leave. It’d be best for you to step back and not cause any trouble.” Manison’s calm voice sounded from the public channel.
“… No, we have to stay. According to the rules and regulations, we must report this to the upper echelons of the civilization afterward.”
“Whatever.”
Manison hung up the communication.
The manager of Planet Earth Ring did not dare resist. He suppressed his anger and ordered the garrison fleet to standby in a defense formation, but he did not disrupt Mechanic Emperor’s actions.
Although the Razo Civilization was one of the Star Cluster civilizations of the Shattered Star Ring, now that their communication with the outside world was cut off, the garrison fleet on this planet was no match for the Mechanic Emperor.
The manager was not going to sacrifice his troops for nothing, so he chose to stand aside with caution. This went against his duty, but he could only be flexible.
Without the obstruction of the garrison fleet, Mechanic Emperor’s mechanical troops started to search through the civilians on a large scale, not missing out on anything that breathed. They chased everyone out to the streets and forced them to stand in lines.
No matter how arrogant, all the Supers obediently followed the Mechanic Emperor’s instructions.
Of course, there were some civilians who just could not grasp the situation. The fists of mechanical soldiers would not have mercy, and after thousands of rioting tourists were beaten up, the rest all became quiet.
Jill and Warren were squeezed by the crowd into a line. They looked around with caution and panic.
The two of them were intimidated by the Mechanic Emperor’s troops. They secretly used the Soul Swapper to communicate with each other’s souls.
“Elder bro, do you think the Mechanic Emperor is here to catch us?” Warren was worried.
“It can’t be. Didn’t he say? He’s here to catch fugitives, and we’re not fugitives,” Jill assured him.
“But even if he’s not here looking for us, since the search is so thorough, there’s a chance we’ll get exposed too.”
“That is a problem indeed…”
Jill looked gloomy and was in a very bad mood. He was partly worried about the situation, but he was also gloomy because he noticed that someone had squeezed his butt.
He glared behind him and saw a mercenary-looking red-skinned beastman moving his hand away while giggling. The Beastman then flexed his arm and displayed his muscles, even giving him a confident look… Only low-grade beastmen with strong desires would still be thinking of reproduction in times like this.
Jill felt a disgusting chill running through his body. He quickly tightened his clothes.
“How about we find an opportunity and swap into those who’ve already been checked?” Warren suggested.
“Let’s see how it goes first. We’ll temporarily stay put, and if things are not going well, I can swap you into my body, and we can share one body temporarily… Wait, no, I’ll swap into your body.”
Jill’s mouth twitched. He regretted choosing a rather attractive body.
The search was going on one batch after another, and Manison was monitoring the process in the main ship.
“Let me s
ee how long you can last.”
Manison’s tone was calm.
The Soul Swapper was unique. All ordinary detection methods were useless. Furthermore, the target could swap into different bodies at any time, so rechecking again and again would be very troublesome.
He planned to send batches of people who finished the check into different spaceships, away from the range of the Soul Swapper and put them in quarantine.
This way, as the number of people was reduced, the Soul Swap Twins would sooner or later activate their abilities and most likely swap into those who had already been checked. However, they did not know that he would still carry out multiple checks even after the quarantine, hoping to trap the two of them in smaller crowds.
Also, another goal of the quarantine was to take away all the people on the planet, including even the garrison fleet. This way, he would have plenty of time to slowly filter and check through them.
If the Soul Swap Twins used their abilities, the shells that had lost their souls should faint, which would be a clue too. Even if the Soul Swap Twins could swap multiple souls around and mix up the identity of the bodies that fainted, as long as it happened, it would prove that they had used their abilities. Furthermore, doing this would definitely cause mass confusion.
Manison had prepared many plans, among which the most extreme was slaughtering the entire planet. Killing life forms with souls one after another would definitely be able to force the Soul Swap Twins to appear. However, the consequences of that were too severe. He would not use this plan unless he had no other choice.
“In about two hours, all the people on the planet will be separately quarantined in different ships. Not the most efficient, but good enough. There’s still plenty of time…”
The Legendary Mechanic c1-1385 Page 828
